St George’s Chapel

Client

Heritage of London Trust

Location

Woolwich, London

Role

Architect

RIBA Work Stage

1-3

St George’s Chapel, also known as The Woolwich Garrison Church is located on Grand Depot Road, Woolwich, opposite the Royal Artillery Barracks. The chapel, which was consecrated in 1863, was effectively destroyed by a V1 flying bomb on the 13th July 1944. Despite being a ruin, this chapel has been deemed sufficiently important to be listed Grade II by English Heritage.

The chapel is a historically significant building within the Royal Artillery Barracks site. In keeping with its status as the Garrison Church, the chapel features a number of mosaics and plaques that are monuments to battles and those fallen in armed conflict. Although a number of plaques have been relocated as a result of the Royal Artillery regiments departure from the site in 2007, the most significant memorial remains – the Victoria Cross Memorial mosaic.

It is the protection of these memorials and the wider church fabric that form the basis for this scheme. Exposure to the elements, particularly rain and frost, has resulted in the deterioration of the church structure and the memorial mosaics. The Heritage of London Trust therefore appointed us to devise a series of works that will see the restoration of the chapel ruins, as well as the installation of a protective canopy to ensure the chapel’s future. The canopy, a glulam timber and tensile fabric structure, was designed to span the full width of the chapel and enable protection from the elements.